VG247 » Steam Big Picture Modehttp://www.vg247.com
VG247.comTue, 31 Mar 2015 20:33:48 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.1Steam Music beta “coming soon” to SteamOS, allows you to play music while gaminghttp://www.vg247.com/2014/02/04/steam-music-beta-coming-soon-to-steamos-allows-you-to-play-music-while-gaming/
http://www.vg247.com/2014/02/04/steam-music-beta-coming-soon-to-steamos-allows-you-to-play-music-while-gaming/#commentsTue, 04 Feb 2014 00:45:31 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=445581Steam Music will be accepting beta testers soon, allowing you to leave off alt-tabbing out to fiddle with your volume balances in order to juggle music and gaming levels.

Steam Music allows you to point Steam at your local music directory, so it can offer album and artist collections in your Steam Library. You can then play and manage music directly through the Steam client itself, as opposed to an external player like Windows Media Player, which should make it easier to juggle volume levels. Now, if we can only get out various VoIP clients in there somehow.

The interface can be controlled via the Big Picture overlay with keyboard and mouse, or more directly using a Steam Controller.

To participate in the beta, sign up to the Steam Music group; the feature will be offered in waves and eventually made available to all users.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2014/02/04/steam-music-beta-coming-soon-to-steamos-allows-you-to-play-music-while-gaming/feed/2Valve ‘fires’ prototype engineer, 25 laid off, Holtman exits – reporthttp://www.vg247.com/2013/02/13/valve-fires-prototype-engineer-jeri-ellsworth/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/02/13/valve-fires-prototype-engineer-jeri-ellsworth/#commentsWed, 13 Feb 2013 08:36:58 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=339553Valve has fired hardware engineer Jeri Ellsworth, according to a tweet on her personal feed. Also, further sources indicate a total of 25 employees have been laid off, and another report states Valve’s director of business, Jason Holtman has left, but neither of these two reports can be confirmed by Valve as of press time.

Ellsworth – known for creating a Commodore 64 emulator within a joystick – posted that she had been released from Valve this morning, and has since posted no further information.

GamesIndustry reports that the hacker and engineer joined the Seattle-based company in August 2011 and worked within the studio’s hardware team to develop next-generation prototypes. The site adds that Ellsworth’s known projects included Steam Big Picture mode and wearable computing tech.

In the wake of the news, several rumours have broken suggesting Vave is shutting down projects and refocusing on new ones. Valve has been quiet on the matter, but founder Gabe Newell told Engadget that reports of a new focus are greatly exaggerated.

“We don’t usually talk about personnel matters for a number of reasons. There seems to be an unusual amount of speculation about some recent changes here, so I thought I’d take the unusual step of addressing them,” he said.

“No, we aren’t canceling any projects. No, we aren’t changing any priorities or projects we’ve been discussing. No, this isn’t about Steam or Linux or hardware or [insert game name here]. We’re not going to discuss why anyone in particular is or isn’t working here.”

Thanks ffronw.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/02/13/valve-fires-prototype-engineer-jeri-ellsworth/feed/43Steam Big Picture Mode released, offers celebratory salehttp://www.vg247.com/2012/12/04/steam-big-picture-mode-released-offers-celebratory-sale/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/12/04/steam-big-picture-mode-released-offers-celebratory-sale/#commentsTue, 04 Dec 2012 00:47:50 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=320677Valve has brought Steam’s Big Picture mode out of beta at last, and to celebrate, it’s throwing a sale on a number of games with controller support, which is particularly advantageous when you’re crashed out on your couch using the big screen-friendly viewing option. Deep discounts of up to 75% are on offer. Be sure to check out Portal 2 in particular, if you haven’t already, as it has a new split-screen co-op option.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/12/04/steam-big-picture-mode-released-offers-celebratory-sale/feed/3Portal 2 update adds Big Picture split-screenhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/11/21/portal-2-update-adds-big-picture-split-screen/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/11/21/portal-2-update-adds-big-picture-split-screen/#commentsWed, 21 Nov 2012 03:30:49 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=317619An update to Portal 2 on PC has enabled split-screen play via Big Picture mode; it can be activated by pressing X on a second controller while in the co-op menu. Drag your rig out to the couch and enjoy Valve’s increasingly successful bid to capture every entertainment space in your home. The update also smacked a few bugs, including the movement-halting quick ping issue.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/11/21/portal-2-update-adds-big-picture-split-screen/feed/0Steam Big Picture: why consoles shouldn’t be worriedhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/09/10/steam-big-picture-why-consoles-shouldnt-be-worried-yet/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/10/steam-big-picture-why-consoles-shouldnt-be-worried-yet/#commentsMon, 10 Sep 2012 20:19:18 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=295586If some are to be believed, Valve’s imminent Steam Big Picture beta is the company taking a pop at the console space. Patrick Garratt begs to differ.

Is Steam Big Picture a move at the console market? No. It’s about PC gamers being able to interface with PC games wherever they happen to be. A PC with a nice text input system isn’t an alternative to PlayStation 4.

To listen to certain quarters of the PC games community, this is a play on the console space. Valve’s promo video, Appley voice and all, tells us that sometimes you just want to “kick it in the living room”. You certainly do, daddio. Either PC gaming’s just noticed there are other areas in the house aside from desks and toilets, or the idea that Valve’s seriously making a play for the Xbox and PlayStation market is arse about tit. Spoiler: it’s the latter.

Big Picture isn’t about replacing Xbox, but rather to do with Valve engendering platform ubiquity for Steam, regardless of what’s going on with its competitors. Valve wants Steam on all your screens. If you want to use Steam through your TV – or, as we’ve seen Valve supply this year, through your mobile phone – then voila.

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that you still need a fast PC connected to your TV to get the best of it. Yes, there’s certain to be people in the comments below this article extolling the virtues of the $300 PC, but you still need another computer to make this happen outside your office/den/fudge-dungeon; unless you’re keen on building PCs and sourcing cheap components to do it, you’re looking at considerably more than that to live the Steam lounge dream. So don’t be throwing your 360 in the bin just yet.

And while it may be true that you want to take your Steam friends with you to the TV, that doesn’t mean you want to vapourise your Live and PSN contacts. Just because you’re using the service on another screen, one doesn’t immediately negate the other. Xbox Live’s pretty popular, word has it.

That’s not to say Big Picture doesn’t look attractive. There was some cool stuff in that presentation. The text input GUI for pads is genius. And a browser on a TV that actually works! Who knew. This is pure Valve obviousness, fixing daft problems that need fixing and giving us more reasons to want to kiss it on the front bottom.

But this is still open-ended gaming for the PC fan. I’m sure there are a bunch of people in the VG247 audience tempted by Big Picture enough to want to screw next-gen console early adoption, drop the cash on a new PC and hook it up to the TV. But aside from a small impact among the ultra-core, it’s logical that Big Picture won’t make any significant impact to Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo at all. It’s a different proposition for existing users. It isn’t a console. It doesn’t replace the service offered by Xbox or PlayStation, and nor will it ever: the truth is that there are millions of customers that just want to buy an eco-system in a box and stick with it for a generation. Steam Big Picture doesn’t cater for that.

It could be argued that Big Picture is a viable alternative to console gaming for an older, more knowledgable audience, providing the more affluent – and patient – with a way to play third-party games on TV. The truth, though, is that anyone with the wherewithal has been able to play PC games on TV screens forever. Big Picture just makes it easier and prettier.

Is Steam Big Picture a move at the console market? No. It’s about PC gamers being able to interface with PC games wherever they happen to be. A PC with a nice text input system isn’t an alternative to PlayStation 4.

The report suggests that Big Picture, “sort of looks like the dashboard on an Xbox 360, minus the advertisements and other clutter that can make that system so irritating to navigate.”

Despite Steam being a PC-based entity first, Big Picture’s interface has been designed to run with controllers in mind, although keyboard and mouse support is included. This particular design choice is Valve’s warning shot to the console market.

With a controller focus and an almost console interface, Big Picture mode could be considered the first step towards a Steam console, the report suggests.

Games can be searched at speed by genre and other filters using a controller, while typing on the pad also uses a neat pinwheel UI with button icons similar to Xbox 360.

The service will also come loaded with Facebook, Google, Reddit, Twitter and YouTube apps. Hit the links to see the features in action.

Head of Valve’s Big Picture mode team Greg Coomer explained to Kotaku why the company is making the right move in bringing Steam to the living room, “We’re confident in some things that customers want. They want a full-screen experience. They want to be in the living room.”

“They want to use a game controller,” Coomer added, “They wanna have a social gaming experience. And we have this platform that lets us ship a significant portion of that experience.”

But does this mean Valve is actively thinking about a Steam console. Kotaku posed the question to Coomer, who replied, “What we really want is to ship [Big Picture mode] and then learn. So we want to find out what people value about that.”

“How they make use of it. When they make use of it. Whether it’s even a good idea for the broadest set of customers or not,” Coomer explained, “And then decide what to do next.”

“So it could be that the thing that really makes sense is to build the box that you’re describing. But we really don’t have a road map. And we think we’re going to learn a tremendous amount through this first release,” Coomer concluded.

That’s definitely not a no then, but what about you? Would you play your Steam back catalogue on your TV? Would you even buy a Steam console if the day finally came? Let us know below.

The New York Times ran a profile piece on Valve over the weekend in which it claims “the company will begin a public test of a new television-friendly interface, Big Picture, for buying Steam games and playing them on computers in the living room”.

Big Picture simplifies the Steam interface for use on a control pad and adjusts video output for big screen HD TVs. It was announced in March but had not been dated beyond a “coming soon” back in July.

The rest of the profile is probably pretty fluffy for you diehards, but there’s some good stuff about Valve’s interest in VR headsets, plus a little gem regarding its recent hardware push. Famously clever tinkerer Jeri Ellsworth told the paper she was pretty dubious about whether Valve was serious about hardware when it began trying to recruit her.

“At one point, I said a hardware lab could be very expensive, it could be like a million dollars,” she said.

“Gabe [Newell] said, ‘That’s it?’”

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/09/steam-big-picture-beta-kicks-off-this-week-report/feed/2Steam Big Picture Mode “coming soon,” says Valvehttp://www.vg247.com/2012/07/11/steam-big-picture-mode-coming-soon-says-valve/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/11/steam-big-picture-mode-coming-soon-says-valve/#commentsWed, 11 Jul 2012 18:19:13 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=276205Valve has said Steam Big Picture Mode is “coming soon,” according to the firm’s Jason Holtman. Speaking to PCGamesN at Develop, Holtman said: “We have all this great content, and it’s super good looking. You own Skyrim on Steam, and a huge television, and 5.1 Surround, why wouldn’t you want to see it there. Customers are constantly saying, ‘I’ve got all this content from you, and I’ve got this other great display device and sound device – can you make this work?’ We’ll ship and see what happens. We’re agnostic as to how people plug that in and how they use it. We’re trying to make it a really good initial experience, and then see what happens.” Valve announced Steam Big Picture Mode during GDC 2011.
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